


Adaptation

by iluvaqt



Series: DC & Marvel: Nightingale [16]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Smallville
Genre: F/M, SHIELD Academy, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 10:42:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6701602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prior to rescuing Kara, Chloe had to adjust to life back on Midgard... Or what she used to call Earth, home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adaptation

Chloe was suffering from culture shock. Adjusting to Asgard with the handmaidens, stewards and guards to oversee your every need and movement, from having lived in relative solitude and simplicity had been an abrupt lifestyle shift. This had once been her life, her playground, now she was struggling to re-integrate into not only 21st Century America but embrace everything that went along with it; political climate, SHIELD regulations and expectations, the UN Security Committee demands and that wasn’t even touching the physicality of her previous role.

No. This was more than she'd prepared herself for. More than she remembered. So much responsibility, obligation, commitment. Her blood surged through her veins amping up her anxiety along with her overanalytical brain. Being surrounded by Earth technology that drew electricity like a parasite, the current humming in all the walls and floors, so many people everywhere that you could turn a corner and bump into several and so much noise was wearing on her resilience to adapt to any challenge and circumstance. 

The halls of Asgard were never empty but surprisingly the only loud, bustling areas had been the barracks and the banquet hall. Palace staff were inherently silent. Trained from induction to be invisible and inaudible in their duties, to only speak when spoken to. And their technology, their science was leagues ahead of Earth’s. The science to the human understanding was harmonious blend of magic and technology. The truth was that Asgardian instruments were powered by energies freely present in the planet’s atmosphere. Latent kinetic energy generated by every living thing. Thermal energy given off by every mammal and then there was the mysterious cosmic energy. She had learned a little of it’s power and application listening and watching Loki but it's detailed study was closely regulated and only taught to apprentices chosen by Masters of the cosmic art. Everything on Earth by comparison seemed crude, unrefined and loud. As though forcing progress and demanding energy instead of tapping into it like a sentient force.

Twelve hours since they'd arrived via Bifrost and her heart yearned for the solitude and tranquility of the pool in the Aelsval mountains. Anything to quiet the organized chaos in her mind and her surrounds. Her head was ringing and her eyes were sore and casting halos every time she blinked from the overly bright artificial lights. She washed her face in the locker room basin and pressed her face against the cool mirror. Everyone had been directed to submit to a full medical screen upon their return from Asgard. Jabbed, prodded, a cardio stress test and too many little vials of blood drawn, had only made her migraine worse.

Whatever the outcome, no one was benching them off the mission, even though Phil had warned that they weren't cleared for active duty until the medical results came back which would take more than the 48hrs Clark had given them. Back in the thick of it and already they were breaking rules. Not that any of it mattered all things considered. The driving reason she had even come back was to help Clark rescue Kara.

Director Coulson also wanted Chloe to have a psych evaluation. She had rolled her eyes at him, she said if he could find a practicing shrink that was older than she was, she'd go see them. Phil had given her his unblinking stoic state but she wouldn't budge.

"I'm not insane, emotionally unbalanced or manic, Director. I promise, if I start showing signs of absentmindedness or unprovoked aggression, I'll check myself into Greenridge and join my peers."

Sam and Maria had tried but couldn't hold back their snickers. Picturing Chloe with her youthful appearance surrounded by the elderly residents of the Manhattan retirement village that used motorised buggies or walking frames to get around. She'd probably cause most of the men to have coronaries when she challenged them to a game of ping pong. Not to mention the outcry among residents and relatives her admittance might attract.

"Humor me, Sullivan," Coulson said with a put upon tone.

So she had. The entire 4-hours of an afternoon that it had taken, being asked to relive in fine detail a lot of the worst experiences of the past 73 years. She had submitted herself to since it was one of the few express requests Phil had ever made. And she was sure that in his mind, he'd been adamant about it for her benefit more than the formality or his own peace of mind. 

Now on top of the heavy unrelenting pulsing inside her skull, she was also emotionally spent to accompany her mental and physical fatigue. Steve had used the time she had needed with the facility psychiatrist to do more prep work. He had joined Diana from the DEO to assess blueprints and town planning records for Luthor’s facility while she was tied up.

Maria found her in the washroom and studied her reflection in the mirror. "I'm guessing most of your things are still in storage or in Canada. Although you probably do have a go-bag in your locker from your last mission with Agent May. As per our logs, that was only a month ago.”

Chloe met her eyes in the mirror and smiled thinly. "Some of the details from before need clarifying but others are clear as day. For example, I know the reason I was working for SHIELD before I left, but as to the when and the order of events I’m really not sure."

"You were clearing HYDRA locations off the board. There was a couple that no one in the intelligence community had even heard of before. It's why as much as everything in your report seems impossible to believe, we've had the supporting evidence handed to us. It makes perfect sense. You knew where to look, because you'd been there before."

"To be fair, James provided me with Intel too. Things I couldn't divulge that he'd shared with us while he was in hiding."

"And conveniently, he hasn't returned." Maria folded her arms over her chest and gave Chloe a pensive look. None of the higher ups were happy that they’d effectively let the Winter Soldier slip through their fingers. She was also under no illusion that both Steve and Chloe would do everything, include lie and aid Steve’s best friend and former war buddy in anyway they could.

Chloe chose to ignore that statement. Maria wasn’t stupid, and she didn’t want to have to make a bold-faced lie to her friend about the why of Bucky’s absence if she didn’t have to. Her written report was weighing on her conscience enough. She remembered that they were good friends. She valued Maria’s friendship. She had been loyal and trustworthy. But the things she'd gone through with James and the fact that he was Steve’s only childhood friend, and his faithful right-hand man during the war, their protection and allegiance would always be to Bucky first. The memories of her life before Loki abducted her weren't the sharpest but she had always trusted her instincts. They'd rarely let her down, and they were telling her that Maria understood her reasons even without her saying, which was why she wasn't even trying to push the issue now. "One thing I'm surprised Phil overlooked in his orders for me is an agent's field test. Technically I haven't served active duty in decades."

Maria twitched a knowing smile. "That's why I'm here. Holo Room in ten minutes."

"Bilgesnipe dung." Chloe closed her eyes and hung her head. 

“I have no idea what that might look like, but I'm telling Steve you said a bad language word."

Chloe turned to look over at her and gave her a narrowed look. "Oh be silent, Robin." Maria glared in return, and Chloe just stuck her tongue out, knowing that her straight-laced CO hated that moniker. The more brassy of their graduating group from the class of ‘08 had spread that name around. It was the year Maria had been promoted to Assistant Director of Operations of SHIELD and the name had come about since they all saw Maria as Fury's favorite protégée and faithful side kick. The Robin to his dark crusading Batman. 

Maria was nobody's sidekick and she would have happily wiped the floor with the academy rookie who had started it all but nobody had ever breathed a word, not even when the entire year's recruits had done three hours of drills in the rain. They had one rule, rookie code of silence. What they sang, said or yelled during exercises, never reached the ears of the higher ups. Even the instructors kept the code. Those absurd songs people crafted were all that kept morale up and the body pushing onward when they'd run well past the point of exhaustion. 

Chloe had only been a first year instructor when she'd caught the nickname make the rounds but she didn't know who started it any more than Maria did. She didn't begrudge her recruits their creativity, so long as they followed orders and they treated all their fellow recruits with respect. No one called her ma'am but Sully had popped up fairly quick. Sully, she thought with a smile. Now there a name she hadn't heard in a very long time. She doubted she was up to playing shadow in the dark with anyone at this point. She was out of practice.

Tying her hair back, she swapped her borrowed sweats for her gym wear that had been in her locker. Maria was carrying motion capture apparatus and holographic projection goggles and was waiting on her at the double doors.

“You know the drill.” Maria had handed her a realistically weighted SIG designed laser gun and said, "Happy hunting."

93-minutes later, at least that’s what the clock said honestly if felt more like a hours, she stumbled into the post briefing area. She could concede with growing annoyance and disappointment that she was out of practice and would more than likely be a distraction and a hinderance in the field than an asset. Aside from the confrontation with Lorelai’s brainwashed army, regular horse-riding and the occasional friendly spar with Steve, she hadn’t really exercised or trained like she had in her youth.

“You had 85% accuracy, low considering your average at the Academy. You completed most of the simulations under time but I was surprised at how long the bomb defusal took in the Seoul Mission and the Chitauris almost obliterated your team before you could subdue them. You did remember that you were team leader right?”

Chloe decided to forget all pretense and lay out on the floor on her stomach. Her face pressed against the polished concrete the coolness soothing her heated skin. Her scalp burned, her eyes felt as dry as sandpaper and she doubted she could even lift her arms anymore. All of the simulations had happened in her mind, but her body had reacted as though it was a real experience. Every blow, every duck, every recoil, every grenade and hit had registered and she was feeling the aftermath now that the adrenaline high had ebbed. Then the shaking started and once it did, she couldn’t stop shivering.

Maria dropped to her knee beside her and put a hand on Chloe’s shoulder, squeezing in a reassuring and comforting grip. “No one’s going to think less of you if you sit this one out.”

Chloe lifted her head and pushed herself up to sit up in a cross-legged position. “I have roughly 38-hours, give or take to remember my training and trust my body to respond the right way. I mean most of that was instinct and bull-headed determination anyway. I’m rusty but I’m not senile. Don’t put me out to pasture yet.”

Maria rolled her eyes and helped her stand, giving her a hand up. “Get some sleep. If you’re that dead set, I’ll give you run through myself. Or if you’d prefer May…”

Chloe flinched at the thought of sparring with Special Agent Melinda May, who'd earned the nickname The Cavalry. She was a one woman STRIKE squad with what she was capable of doing. “I think I’ll take your offer. May has the bone-density of a Kryptonian. I’m half sure she may be a descendant of the Vanir.”

“How are they connected?”

“The inhabitants of the galaxy are all connected. There are records that the Kryptonians were the youngest race of the Ancient Ones who were explorers, who discovered and colonized the galaxy. Kryptonian lineage and Aesir are closely intertwined. Queen Frigga was half Kryptonian. Vanir and Aesir are also related and share almost identical physical traits such as longevity, endurance, strength and immunity to most diseases.”

“You must have fit right in.” Maria said that with a touch of envy in her voice.

Chloe snorted. “I was the only fair haired person on Vanaheim. I mostly kept to myself wherever Loki decided to drop me. I probably fit in the most with the Elves of Alfheim though physicality wise, they’re built smaller, shorter and leaner. Less the ears and the cat like-eyes of course.”

“Well pixie, let’s get you cleaned up. Or you husband might growl at me.” And she was only partly commenting in jest. Steve had been pretty firm in his request that she look out for Chloe in his absence. Maria hoped that Chloe’s healing factor was still active, she'd taken more than a few beat downs that would have left physical and mental bruising. Steve wouldn't be happy if he knew what they'd been up to.

::: ::: :::

Maria gave her a ride to the motel, Steve had checked them into. Phil had offered them to stay on base but one shared look and Steve had declined for them both. He immediately understood her need for their own space and quiet.

The room was dark and silent when she got back. The motel was outside the city, so only the occasional 18-wheeler rumbling down the road interrupted the nocturnal life of chirping crickets and roaches.

She went for a shower and let down her hair. Too sore to even dress properly, she managed to thread her arms gingerly through one of Steve’s button down shirts. Moving around the room quietly, she picked up papers and put them neatly on the coffee table and hung coats and hoodies on clothing hooks. Following her brief tidying up spell, she heated herself some canned bean chili and made herself some toast with grilled cheese.

Her head still ached and she was developing tension in her neck. She really should be catching sleep but she was restless and she knew she wouldn’t sleep until Steve got in.

She heard the door about three hours after she arrived and left the bedroom where she’d been sitting on the bed trying her hand at breaking down some firewalls on the JLA system. If Bruce was around to notice, he’d probably be annoyed with her, but it was good practice for brushing up her programming and Midgard tech skills.

Her feet bare, he didn’t hear her exit the room and was busy kicking off his shoes by the door and setting down his backpack. He’d left his shield at HQ, not wanting to draw attention to them. This job required stealth and as Captain America, he tended to attract attention like a neon sign. He was dressed in washed out jeans and a grey zip up hoodie, his outfit was chosen for it’s common Soccer dad, Gap style. He tossed his baseball cap, plastic rimmed glasses and room key on the end table and headed for the kitchenette. He went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, chugging half of it down before he even noticed her standing there.

Chloe had taken the time he’d been unguarded to watch him. He was shirtless. How that happened would not doubt be a story she’d have to drag out of him later. Steve hated waste, mess and mistakes. Him winding up shirtless, or dirty in anyway meant that it was a combination of two or all three that lead the result. She would never complain about the view.

He set the bottle down on the table she had been eating at earlier and left the foil wrapped plate untouched, giving it no more than a passing glance while he moved closer to her.

His eyes were hard to read in the low light. The motel flood lights cast the room in a yellowish hue but didn’t illuminate everything. The way his lips slightly parted and his chest expanded noticeably with each breath told her he was affected by her presence and her appearance.

“I thought you’d be sleeping,” he said his voice a little husky. She didn’t think it was from fatigue either.

“Couldn’t. Not without you.”

Steve took the edges of his shirt and looked over her, starting from her eyes and lowering his gaze to her bare breasts and down to her simple white booty shorts. “This looks better on you.”

“Fits you better and I think an open shirt on you is an invitation to climb you like a very handsome tree. You've got a very impressive torso, Mr. Rogers. Seeing that fine collection of dark blonde hair trailing across your body, makes me hot for you in a heartbeat.”

“You could be dressed in a toga and I’d still be hot for you,” he said dragging his eyes up to met hers. 

This time, with him less than a foot away she could read his eyes. The subtle flicks of green were brighter even though his pupils were large enough to make his irises only a sliver. His warm breath make the hairs on her skin stand to attention, among other things.

One second they were staring at each other, just soaking in the warmth and scent of being so close and the next it was an outburst of compulsive need and it was impossible to say who moved first.

Lips fused together, hands grabbing, moulding, drawing closer still. Their bodies met and slid together. Chloe felt her lungs burn and ache from the lack of oxygen their hungry tongue tango induced but she didn’t care, his lips were full and soft and logically she knew she’d kissed him only hours before but in her heart, it felt like a lifetime ago and once, a hundred, a thousand times would never be enough.

His hands tenderly cupping her face, his fingers tangled in her hair, she busied her own hands tugging at his belt and drawing them backward from the way she’d come. To the bedroom. It was a simple, cheap, single bedroom apartment at a motel that let by the week. There was no carpet on the linoleum floor bar the threadbare rug under the bed that probably hadn’t seen a vacuum in a long time but none of that mattered so long as he was with her.

When they toppled gracelessly onto the bedcovers, her hair caught under her back and she had only a microsecond to swallow back a cry and push against his shoulder so that she could free herself and adjust their position. Steve must have thought it was a moan of enthusiasm because he continued about his amorous exploration of her body and kissed his way down from her lips, neck and collarbone to her breasts. Taking one rosy peak between his wet lips.

Any memory of being annoyed with her hair was forgotten as he lapped, suckled and tugged at her till her brain was a hopeless mess of exploding synapses and euphoric bliss.

She freed his button and lowered the zipper on his pants, catching her foot inside the seams to shove them down his legs while she held his head close to her navel where he was planting butterfly kisses over her skin. Aching with need, she grabbed at his hips and he needed no further encouragement to move up her body and settle between her legs. 

With a seemingly effortless tug, he ripped the thin fabric from her body, the only barrier that had been shielding her sex from view. He slid one arm under her left thigh and spread her open wider. Taking himself in hand, he only needed to position the slick head at her red, dripping quim before he pushed home.

The joining stole her breath from her lungs and she arched upward, the tips of her ears blooming with blood, the roots of her hair prickling and her toes curling when the sensation of having him stretch her and fill her bathed over her senses.

He paused for a moment, captivated and frozen in rapture. The feeling of her too exquisite almost torturous to endure. He let his heart beat carry him through, counting the beats till he felt in control enough to open his eyes and let more awareness and sensation in. 

As he looked down at her, Steve gave her a devastatingly handsome, contented smile. She loved his smile. Especially this one. So warm, loving and open, the apples of his cheeks full and high, his full lips wide and slightly parted she could just see his top teeth and the corners of his eyes wonderfully crinkled. He was happy, and in turn, so was she.

They made love with less urgency now that they were tangled in each other's arms, skin on skin, hearts beating strong and unwittingly in harmony. Sharing air, eyes connected and focused. The rest of the world ceased to exist in moments like this. While their senses were attuned, alive and hypersensitive, honed both by necessity and in Steve’s case enhanced, the only awareness they had in this moment was of the minute details, expressions and feelings of each other. And that was before she let the gate on her power open.

When she let her emotions leak out-- projecting, pushing, he groaned and gripped her harder and lost rhythm in his thrusts. It was enough acceptance and encouragement on his part that she was tempted to do more, so she open herself up. The feeling of how he surrounded her while he filled her. His strength and mass, the feeling of being protected and cherished, but also feeling dominated by him. His large hands could break bones, smash through walls but in his embrace she had no fear.

He turned his face up, his teeth biting down into his lower lip hard enough to draw blood as he fought to hold back against the tide of pure heightened bliss she channeled that doubled his own and threatened to shatter his control.

Chloe inched between them and put her hands over his pecs, feeling her release building quickly under his harder thrusts and the new angle he’d created when his arm had tightened around her leg. She screamed his name, her voice hoarse and breathy. Her limited oxygen causing her to black out momentarily as her orgasm pulled at every muscle in her body. Nerve endings electrified and danced under her skin and she trembled like an overly tightened bow string while he tried to push through her fisting inner muscles.

He came undone with a shout and collapsed against her, pressing kisses to her shoulder and neck, and breathing her name over and over against her skin.

“I love you,” he whispered when his breathing finally evened out.

“My darling,” she said her voice heavy with swamping emotion of unquantifiable love and unspeakable gratitude for his faithfulness, devoted affection and acceptance he proved to her. She traced and cupped the side of his face, thumbing his beautiful lush bottom lip that he’d so thoughtlessly bruised and marred. Thankfully he healed fast all on his own. “And I you, Steve. For always.”

He rolled to the side, removing his welcome weight from her body. She was too tired not the hide her disappointment. He chuckled softly and kissed her sweaty temple, tasting the saltiness of her skin and breathing a contented sigh against her hair. “Believe me, you make a much more desirable resting place than anything imaginable, but give it a few more minutes and I’d probably smother you.”

Chloe took his arm and positioned it over her hip before snuggling into his side. “What a way to go though,” she teased softly.

Steve pressed a kiss on the little furrow between her brows. “How did your assessment go?”

Chloe pulled a face. “Which one? The Psych evaluation reliving the worst years without you or getting my ass handed to me by a sim. program?” She felt his chest tighten, his breathing cease and immediately regretted her uncensored words. Of course he would feel guilty, not only because he hadn’t been able to help her, or rescue her sooner, so much time lost and all that she had endured in that time but also because he hadn’t been able to be with her in that session either. She could breathe easier when he hugged her to his chest and started to breath again himself. 

“I’m sorry they made you do that, but did it help all? Talking about things?”

“With you, always, but not with them. It was awful, but here like this right now, it’s a good start to forgetting again.”

Steve nodded silently. He reached up for her head to draw her in with the arm he had curled behind her and his fingers caught in her hair accidently. He didn’t miss the look of pain on her face this time.

“I’m thinking that there’s a good reason regulation says shoulder-length and tied back,” she said with another wince. In one of the mission simulations, a Chitauri warrior had caught her long ponytail mid fight and used it to swing her back off her feet before driving an armored first into her stomach. She'd managed to blast him off her with one of their own staff weapons that had been lying within reach. She'd sleep off the internal damage tonight, her brain chemistry and body would heal everything by morning.

“I’ll miss it,” he said with a small smile, wrapping one long lock around his index finger. “But you look beautiful with it short too. And I’d much rather know it didn’t get you hurt on the job, than having it long and a liability for simple aesthetics.” He let the lock fall free and ran both his hands down her arms up and down to soothe away the goosebumps that were forming from her chilling skin being exposed to the cold air of the room.

Chloe nodded in agreement and then swung her leg over his hip. Straddling him, she ran her palms over his glistening torso. Shaking her long hair out, it hung over her shoulders and created a corn silk curtain over her nakedness. “Restyle in the morning then. For now let’s see how creative we can be for the rest of the night.”

Steve swallowed hard and held her in place over his throbbing groin while he took in the water nymph fantasy she created. His heart skipped a beat when he watched her catch her lip between her teeth before arching her back, causing tiny dusk-toned buds to poke through that curtain of hair. He forced his tongue clear of his throat with a cough and focused on his breathing. They were in for a long night, and he hoped it wouldn’t end. Pity she no longer had control over time. Frozen in this moment forever was definitely a desire he wished he could ask for.


End file.
